"Such a refreshing, original take on cooking!" Moosewood Cookbook author Mollie Katzen

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Butterscotch Cream Pie

Coconut Cream Pie has always been the claim to fame at Union Street Cafe. "They'll get you high with their Coconut Cream Pie" go the words of Eve Goldberg, Canadian folk singer-songwriter. Rich coconut custard, yellow with egg yolks and butter, piled into a flaky, almost salty crust, topped with piles of whipped cream and even more toasted coconut. My sister, my aunt, myself and now my mother have baked and perfected it over the last ten years. We were faithful to that pie, never veering towards any variation thereof. No chocolate, banana, or butterscotch cream pie for us! Until now.

It all started with a simple and delicious butterscotch sauce recipe that we had been making to top our sticky toffee cakes. Inspired by the comment that eating the sauce by the spoonful was better than sex, I wanted to make a pie with the same rich caramel flavours. I used our tried-and-true coconut custard recipe as a base and came up with this lovely treat. It beats the pants off boxed butterscotch pudding! So to speak.

Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the bottom of a large heavy saucepan, and place over medium low heat. The sugar will begin to melt after a minute or so. Stir it carefully so it doesn't burn. When it has all melted, carefully add the butter and whipping cream and stir until the hard bits of caramel have dissolved. Raise the heat to medium high and add the two cups of milk. Meanwhile, whisk the flour, cornstarch and brown sugar together in a bowl. Add the 1/2 cup milk and whisk until smooth. When the mixture in the pot boils, whisk in the flour mixture and keep stirring as the filling thickens and bubbles. Whisk in the egg yolks and vanilla, then remove from the heat. Scrape into the pie shell and let cool, then refrigerate with plastic wrap on the top for an hour or so before serving with piles of whipped cream. This pie will keep for at least two days if refrigerated.

About Me

Named Nova Scotia's Local Food Hero for 2010, Jenny Osburn found a love of cooking early in life. From experiments in making tofu from scratch and perfecting the samosa as a teenager to heading up one of the Annapolis Valley's most renowned restaurants for over a decade, she believes as Barbara Kingsolver has written: that "cooking is 80 percent confidence, a skill best acquired starting from when the apron strings wrap around you twice".
Along with her mother Anna, her sister Meagan, and her aunt Kate, she started the Union Street Cafe in Berwick, Nova Scotia in 2000. Now she is right where she wants to be, in the kitchen of her very own restaurant, making food from the great bounty of the Annapolis Valley.